Two Garnets and some Cherries with Cream
by Kayi Rowling
Summary: "Son, it's about time I tell you how I met your mother." "What…? It's 2 AM!" A SilverspawnShipping dish with a moderate amount of LOL sauce... That is: Giovanni/Ariana, Giovanni
1. Chapter 1

**Two Garnets and some Cherries with Cream**

Chapter 1 of ?

_By Kayi S. Rowling_

_

* * *

_Silver was _tired._

And not just any "tired," like when you walk a thousand miles, swim a hundred, or endure a three hours long class at school… _No,_ Silver was tired beyond the unitalicized word; it needed a special emphasis to get through to the minds of the people.

After all, he had just battled another world-menacing danger, led by yet another adult with intentions that sounded fine when written on paper that were actually _horrible_ in execution, who was followed by a horde of fans wearing the one uniform he dictated that was unfairly fanservicey for the girls—even when Silver was in the age of perking up at the sole _idea_ of such outfits, like _Gold_ did, he was far more concerned with the well-being of the world—, which did a mostly poor job at helping him along with his goals. It hadn't been easy, but with the three new Pokédex holders of this other national region he had never heard of before—Mask of Ice wasn't a master on geography, and he hadn't encouraged them to study it either—, they had won in the end. Then, after a small celebration that was little more than a group-wide "hurray!," everyone had gone back home by their own means.

Silver himself had just arrived to his new hideout. He had been forced to abandon the previous one after his father got tracked down, but there were advantages to this new place, like the fact that it was big enough to split up into three spaces: the front and two "bedrooms." He recalled Honchkrow into his Pokéball and, dragging his feet, he headed for his own room. Pushing the curtain to the side with silvery eyes half-closed, the sole partial sight of his bed made a delicious shiver of delight run down his spine and a silly smile of relief appear on his lips. Afterwards, he pretty much collapsed on top of it and was out like a light for the night.

…however, as luck would have it, when Silver wanted to rest the most was the moment he wouldn't be allowed to do so in peace. "Son?" It was barely a whisper at first, but now it was even accompanied by a firm hand on his shoulder that was insistently shaking it so he would wake up, and would simply _not give up._

Silver groaned in reply after a while, as he turned his back on Giovanni to look at the digital alarm clock nearby. It read 2 AM. And he didn't even _remember_ when he had arrived, but he felt as if he had just fallen asleep and wasn't particularly happy he had been interrupted in the middle of his well-deserved rest. Had he been dreaming, too? He couldn't remember that either.

"Silver, there's something I must tell you," came the deep voice of his father from his side, and he felt the bed dip a little as the older man sat down.

"What?" he practically yawned, rubbing his still closed eyes. He just couldn't open them for more than a second.

Giovanni sighed. It sounded unusually _sad_ to Silver's ears… What could it be?

Well, whatever it was, he would very much prefer it if it wasn't anything about his father's illness worsening, or his father abandoning him, or the previous coupled with going back to being the leader of Team Rocket. It was hard enough on Silver to lead those idiots back into the straight and narrow; he didn't want the weakened Giovanni wandering around the place, sparking misguided loyalties or any sort of rebellion against the current administration.

"I want… I would like you to know about how I met your mother." Oh, it wasn't what he had feared…

_...wait a minute._ Silver had someone in this world to call a _mother?_ How come nobody had mentioned such a person to him before? How come _Giovanni_ had forgotten to give him such an important bit of information?

Because, really, the redhead wasn't going to admit that it was his fault for not even _thinking_ about his own female parental unit since he had found out who was his father.

Now, however, Silver was quite willing to hearing _anything_ about her. He was even _wide awake; _still _tired,_ but at least _conscious._

…yet the fact that Giovanni had been so disturbed by the sole thought of her stuck to the back of his mind like chewed gum to hair as he turned around to face his father. Were his parents divorced? Had she gone off with another? Had she abandoned them early on? Or was she ill? In danger? _Dead and cremated into mere ashes? Dead and six feet under? Dead and body still missing?_

"Who was she?" Silver innocently asked, curiosity now eating his mind away.

Giovanni frowned and looked down at the floor. "I'd prefer not to tell you. You actually know her, and you see her too, but… I want to respect her decision." So he knew her, and she had left them? The silver-eyed youth quickly trashed the mental image of his unknown mother's funeral. "But I think that it's important that you get to know some things about her. And I didn't think it was fair to leave you asking yourself about her with no answers at hand," he granted his son a weak smile, and Silver returned the gesture awkwardly.

"So…" the youth began, averting his eyes, "where did you meet her? And when?" he hastily asked, knowing those were other valid basic questions on the current topic of conversation.

"Well, I met her at the train station at Saffron City. And I was… younger back then," Giovanni coughed, choosing not to state the obvious: his relationship with the mother of his only child had begun and developed rather _quickly,_ a year before Silver was born. Maybe. "That day—"

* * *

—the sun had decided to keep itself hidden behind a thin veil of grayish clouds. It could rain at any minute, considering the staleness that could be felt on the air. But Giovanni was done with his business at Saffron City and was ready to take the train back to Viridian City; he didn't want to tire his Pokémon to death traveling, after all, and the old train running on its rusted rails was the fastest—yet not safest—option around, too. "Perfect for the crazy young people," had muttered the old man that sold him the ticket, "those whippersnappers that like risking their lives, instead of waiting for the bus." Whatever!

After assuring himself for the tenth time that he had all his Pokéballs on him, as well as his closed suitcase at hand, Giovanni approached the line that was forming to get into the train. There was a lot of noise to his right, where a bunch of kids was chattering excitedly… A bunch of _redheaded kids,_ an oddity to see around the mainland—Kanto and Johto—, chattering with a very discernible accent. They just _had_ to be from the north, from Sinnoh or the surroundings.

Most people tore their curious gazes away after a quick glance in an act of what they considered to be politeness, but Giovanni thought was actually apathy. He was, meanwhile, having fun detecting the different tones of red hair in the group, and realizing he could name most after fruits and vegetables: carrot, persimmon, tomato, cherry, strawberry, chestnut… From orange to brownish red, they covered a very wide range with little under thirty heads. They were also all underage, but that was a lesser concern; it wasn't unheard of that kids that young took the gym challenges or attempted a go at the league, after all, and everyone was just too "polite" to question the sanity of the legal guardians of those children. And, from what he could pick up from their overlapping voices, one among them _was _going after the gym badges.

"Well, then," a feminine voice raised above the noise the others were making, quieting them down a bit, "I must get going now, before the train leaves…"

…these words caused the rest of the kids to whine and beg with even louder cries for their "older sister" or "older cousin" not to go, or to take them all with her, or to forget about Kanto and trying it elsewhere, and so on. But Giovanni couldn't hear them clearly anymore: after the older girl had spoken and he had spotted her, he couldn't force his full attention away from her.

However, he had to keep his mind clear: the girl was _not_ beautiful—

* * *

"—isn't that line just the _most clichéd _bit used in all romance novels? And shouldn't you think of my mother as _beautiful,_ at the very least?" Silver interrupted his father's narration, ticked off by the incongruity.

"Have _you_ ever read romance novels?" Giovanni countered.

Silver barely managed not to avert his eyes, but his blush still showed quite a bit. "Of course _not!_" he growled lowly. "But _Blue_ does and won't shut up about this and that, so I know about it, fine?"

His father gave him an incredulous yet amused look, but kept quiet about the issue. He actually changed topic next: "The truth is that your mother wasn't beautiful back then, just very attractive and charismatic. Oh, well… If it bothers you that I don't call your mother beautiful, let me rephrase it, then—"

* * *

—the girl was _beautiful,_ with the cherry tone he had spotted earlier giving a vibrant and lively color to her long and wavy hair, and her thin yet dense eyebrows. Oddly enough, her eyes were also reddish in color, but this one was more on par with the color of a garnet and just as shiny as the gem. And all that red just made her creamy skin glow… He couldn't see more of her from his current spot, though; all the other kids were blocking the view.

"Sissy, don't leave me!" a little girl cried even louder than the others. And this one _actually jumped_ and latched on to the beautiful redhead he had been watching intently for a while now; the young woman cringed at the impact and subsequent increased weight. "You can't leave me, sissy!"

The older girl blushed to the roots of her hair until the colors blended. "I told you _not to use that word,_ Mars! Be a good girl, and use the word _sister_ next time, you hear?" she hissed, trying to pry the tiny arms of her little sister off her neck. "Come _on!_ Let go! Or else, I won't _ever_ go back to Sinnoh!"

And the girl let go at last, pouting. "You promise to come back, then?" she begged… and so did the others, all turning identical starved-and-mistreated-Growlithe eyes on the eldest of the group, who could only sigh and smile at them in what she hoped was a comforting way.

"I do," she promised, now tearing up as the rest of the group stubbornly refused to look at her with other eyes that didn't pull on her heartstrings. "Just promise to be good, all of you…"

"_Hey, what in the name of Arceus are you all doing?_" came a yell from behind Giovanni, who was now fully facing the bunch of redheaded siblings and cousins that were giving each other their heartwarming good-byes. The horrified looks on the family group's faces were all the information he needed to know that whoever was running toward them from behind him wasn't someone they wanted around.

Without even glancing over his shoulder, he slowly lowered his suitcase, watching as the girl who had caught his attention hurried the other kids along, telling them to flee as she hugged and kissed the tear-stained cheeks of her little sister before letting go. The man that was after the group stumbled with Giovanni's suitcase not a second later, falling flat on his face. Bewildered looks were on all the onlookers' faces… and the redheaded family was gone, with the young woman fleeing to the nearest line's beginning and climbing into the train in a haste, bothering more than a couple of people in the process.

As the man who had stumbled rose to his feet—Giovanni couldn't help notice he had the same cherry-red hair as the girl… and the garnet eyes—, the young man could only discreetly reach for his suitcase and mutter a very fake-sounding "I'm sorry, sir." The older man cursed at his luck, at the gone children, at the out-of-sight girl, and at _him_ in quick succession. Glaring over his shoulder at Giovanni briefly, the man left his side, continuing to look around the station for the kids he was searching for. Whichever his reasons for doing it, legit or not, Giovanni had had some sort of _fun_ slowing the man down and doing the kids a favor, so he got into the train without an inkling of guilt—

* * *

"—so, who was that man, anyways? Did you ever ask my mother?"

"Why, he was your grandfather!"

"Oh, dear…" Silver had had a feeling about it, but hearing it _confirmed…_

"Indeed. And I'm sure I must be the luckiest person on the world, because the next time we met, he didn't remember seeing me before—"

* * *

—and Giovanni proceeded to look for the girl he felt entitled to say he had _saved_ inside the train. He had to go several wagons back to find her, and he had even almost missed her entirely; if it wasn't for her bright red hair, he would have. Regardless, he chose to sit behind her, taking out a newspaper from his suitcase and pretending to read. She was still hiding, after all, and he didn't want to blow her cover by sitting on the same row as she was, which would have been sort of _impossible,_ too, as she was occupying the floor space…

"Oddish," she softly called her Pokémon, taking it out from its Pokéball, "we're about to leave… Just, please; help me if dad finds me." Giovanni heard her loyal Pokémon ruffling its leaves in agreement with her plan. "Thank you."

Not a minute later, the redheaded man was at the door at the front, stomping all over the place and scaring the other travelers. The man found the girl pretty quickly, about to miss her in his haste; Giovanni folded his newspaper, dark eyes on the conflict happening before him. He'd have to step in… again.

"_You_ are coming back home!" the man yelled at the girl, reaching out for her _long hair,_ but she used her arm for cover, and he pulled her up from it just the same. "How can you do this to _us?_ Taming Pokémon goes against Arceus' will!"

"But, dad…!" she whined, trying to push him away as he begun to drag her to the exit. Her Oddish was doing its best to run after them and help her; however, its legs were _too short,_ and it couldn't _catch up…_

Giovanni rose to his feet. "Beedrill!" The Pokéball hit the space right over the exit, ensuring the bee would block it. The man yelped, the girl shrieked, and both stopped; her Oddish finally got to stand by her, its leaves brushing her legs comfortingly. Barely keeping the self-satisfied smirk off his lips, Giovanni approached them from behind. "Sir, the train is about to leave, and I'm sure you didn't get to buy a ticket for traveling. I don't know how you do things over at Sinnoh, but here in Kanto, you can't board any vehicle without a ticket. Don't make me call the station's security guards," he told the man slowly, to counter his anger. And to calm the other passengers that could only stare at the three of them in bewilderment now, "politeness" forgotten.

If the older man kept glaring at him like that, his eyes would pop out. "Don't be a pest, kid; my daughter doesn't have permission to travel," the man growled.

"Oh? How old is she?" For the very first time in the whole day, the girl looked at him with her garnet-like eyes over her shoulder… No, scratch that: she _glared at him in indignation,_ a blush tinting her cheeks.

Her father frowned. "Fifteen." Whoops, _too underage!_ And such a perfect jail bait…

"_I'm nineteen!_" Much better! But now, her eyes were burning a hole through the floor, and her face nearly glowed…

The fact that she had also _yelled it_ added to her shame, so Giovanni let his hand fall on her shoulder and got a bit closer. And, in what he would come to consider his _worst attempt _at putting someone else's mind in ease in his whole life, he whispered: "Could have fooled me. And don't worry; I'll keep the secret." Her glare was oddly icy for such a warm color. He coughed awkwardly, and turned to address her father once again. "Sir, she's old enough to travel on her own _and_ without your permission, so, please, get off the train."

"You can't tell me what to do, kid!" The man would simply not relent, pulling on his daughter's arm again.

Giovanni's Beedrill was all over the man's face in less than a second, keeping him from advancing. The bee's owner could see its thoughts painted all over his Pokémon's face: "You're getting into too much trouble for a mate, master." At long last, the first trace of a blush appeared on his cheeks; after all, he cared _far more_ about the opinions his Pokémon had than that of the millions of other humans in the world.

"Sir, she bought her ticket and she can travel on her own," he began once again, not thinking clearly anymore after his Pokémon made him feel all flustered. "If you want to ensure she doesn't do whatever you don't want her to, then get off the train now and buy a _damned_ ticket too."

Her look was now one of bewilderment and disbelief. "Idiot!" she hissed, her voice low enough so that her father didn't listen… but Giovanni did; very clearly, even, as if she had yelled into his ear.

However, the sole suggestion had hit the mark, and the man released his daughter's arm roughly—she began rubbing her minutely bruised skin right afterward—before he glared intensely at the young man who was siding with his sinner of a daughter. "What she is doing is _wrong._ What _you_ are doing is even _worse._ Arceus will punish you both one of these days—!"

* * *

"—let me guess…" Silver began, now yawning as his _tiredness_ came back slowly. "When the time came, my grandfather told you both _I _was the punishment. Or that Mask of Ice taking me was."

Giovanni frowned. "Your grandfather had _issues,_ Silver, and a particularly bad memory too. No matter how many times we met after that, he would always forget my face, and he eventually forgot what your mother was doing at Kanto and they even began getting along again."

Silver's eyebrow went up as he rested his head on his hand. "That's sad," he deadpanned.

"Like you have _no idea,_" Giovanni replied with the same tone and equal sarcasm. He coughed a bit, and then he continued: "He left the train—"

* * *

—like a villain fleeing the scene in a bad theater piece. _Someone else_ had called the security guards, Giovanni realized a second later as they went in and asked about the disturbance. They hurried after the man to try to catch him outside, and all was peaceful in the wagon once again. Except the other passengers were now looking at the pair of young trainers still standing, and at their Pokémon too, with great distrust and dislike. "Whippersnappers," an old woman hissed. Giovanni was starting to hate that word.

Sighing, the redheaded girl pulled out her Oddish's Pokéball. "Mission accomplished, Oddish; we're staying," she whispered kindly as she recalled her Pokémon. Then she turned to look at the young man behind her, and her softened glance began icing over as she glared at him. "Get out of my way!" she growled all of a sudden, before she pushed past him to go pick a new seat far away from their original spot, crossing her arms and legs once she sat down. Now he had a very bad feeling that he had actually _offended her_ by having interfered.

Shrugging, he went back to his own seat, picking up the newspaper he had dropped so he could fold it and put it away—it was the _oldest_ newspaper currently in his possession, and he had been "reading" it _upside-down_ too—, trying to cheer himself up after that disheartening show of ingratitude. She had certainly _not asked for help,_ but…

"Thanks for making my father stumble out there. I owe you one."

Giovanni nearly jumped out of his skin as he heard the girl's voice right behind him; she had sneaked in without making a sound, after all. Looking over his shoulder, he noticed her face was of a luminescent red color up to her hair's roots and that she was stubbornly averting her eyes. "You're welcome," he practically _croaked,_ not knowing what else to do or say.

An awkward silence ensued between them, right before the train's whistle deafened them all and began its shaky march to Viridian City's own train station. She barely managed to stay upright by grasping the back of his seat, while he actually fell back onto it. He couldn't help chuckling and turning his dark eyes at her; she tried to remain impassive—regardless of her bright blush—but in the end she conceded him an amused little smile.

"You can sit here with me if you want," Giovanni suggested, moving over to the window's side along with his closed suitcase.

Her frown wasn't even half-serious. "Don't try anything funny," she warned him, accepting his invitation just the same. Again, she crossed her arms and legs as soon as she was seated. However, she wasn't about to _close up,_ as her pose suggested: "You know? I'm going to challenge the Kanto gym leaders."

His eyebrows went up. "Really?" She nodded. "And you're planning to challenge the leader at Viridian first?"

She nodded again, quite eagerly. "Yes. I even have a type advantage against that gym's Pokémon. I heard they specialize in ground types. If that's so, then it'll be easy as cake!"

Oh, she had _no idea…_ At all. "You think so?" he asked, unable to keep the smirk off his face. "I've heard they're pretty strong over there. It's not a gym you challenge until at least winning a couple of badges elsewhere, they say." Leaning toward her as if confiding a secret, he whispered: "The Viridian gym leader remains undefeated since he was given the job; you should reconsider…"

She looked at him skeptically. "You're joking, aren't you?" she chuckled, her garnet eyes searching the truth in his own. "There's no way someone _that powerful_ exists."

"Just take care of yourself and your Pokémon, then," Giovanni told her. "I'm not warning you in vain, I hope."

"Don't worry, I got it!" she replied, winking—

* * *

"—were you the gym leader back then?" Silver interrupted.

"I had been the leader since I was _nine;_ and before me, there wasn't even a gym in Viridian City." Talk about an ego booster.

The redheaded youth sighed. "And did you tell my mother that you were the leader?"

"No, I didn't. I didn't want her to find a reason to distrust me right after I managed to make her feel safe and comfortable," Giovanni explained. "We continued our journey that way, ignoring who the other was…"

"Wait, you _didn't_ even _ask_ for _her name?_" Silver nearly yelled at his father in disbelief.

Giovanni chuckled, reaching out to ruffle his son's hair, the same color as his mother's. "No, I didn't." The same answer. "I preferred to remain anonymous, and if I had asked her for that information, she'd want to know my name too."

"You could have _lied!_"

"Silver, I had been hiding _behind an upturned, incredibly old newspaper_ just a while back; I wasn't thinking straight with your mother nearby!" Giovanni defended himself, blushing considerably. It was photo-worthy, if only for the fact that he rarely looked like _that…_

Silver finally gave up, smirking. "So it was love at first sight?"

His father turned his whole body to the side, too flustered to face his son. "Your mother and I eventually arrived to Viridian City, and we split up at the train station," he changed the topic, back to his story, "and even when she said she'd challenge the gym right away, I didn't see her until the following week—"

* * *

"—boss, there's someone approaching the gym," came a voice through the intercom on his desk.

Giovanni's spirits lifted considerably at that, as they had every single time a new challenger came. Or, at least, before he was met with disappointment as whoever arrived _wasn't her…_ "Standard procedure," he replied, turning on his own monitor in haste to view what the security cameras were filming. However, his just renewed good mood turned abysmal the moment he saw that it was only an old man, walking like a Slowpoke—if not even _slower_—toward the gates of Viridian City's gym. "Damn…"

"You sure on the standard procedure, boss?" the intercom person asked in confirmation.

"Forget it; throw anyone who's free in there, and call me only if our team is defeated," Giovanni ordered, ending the conversation and standing up from his desk to go wander around his office in order to cheer up. He _couldn't_ forget about _her,_ and the fact that she had yet to show up when she had been so eager to come to _his gym_ just made him worry and got him depressed to no end. Had she actually gone ahead to another city in Kanto, to try her luck at the other gyms? Had she been followed and taken away by her father, the religious fanatic from Sinnoh that worshipped Arceus?

Giovanni ended up looking out from the window that overviewed the training area he had built behind the gym for those Pokémon trainers that _begged_ to become part of his team, in an attempt to become stronger and, someday, maybe also win over him and leave with a badge on their hands. He was there just in time to see how one of the best in the team, one he even considered a close _partner_ now, was called over to enter the gym and proceed to test the new challenger before the leader even had to step in. Said leader smirked; whoever had come today had no chance against his trusted partner…

But, as luck would have it—because luck, as everyone knows, is a somewhat sadistic entity—, there was someone calling him again from the intercom: "Boss, an unexpected challenger just came in!" And, not really in the mood anymore, Giovanni nearly dragged his feet back to his desk, turning his eyes slowly at the screen and almost yawning in boredom.

It just happened it was _her_ this time: a young woman with long hair, which, thanks to the black-and-white-only security cameras, he couldn't confirm was that bright cherry red that had caught his attention the previous week and hadn't let go… but he just _knew it was!_

His hands lost all the dexterity they had, so he struggled to send his message back through the intercom: "Stop the battle! I'm going down there!"

"Sorry, boss, it's already in process…" Giovanni cursed lowly.

He pressed several buttons by the monitor and had the cameras follow the redheaded girl into the gym. He also turned on the sound; he wanted to hear what was going on down there. He was already _late_ to stop the trainer representing him from battling her, but he wouldn't miss a _single minute of it._

"Thank you very much, sir, for all your help. I can keep going on my own," the girl told the old man that had taken her to the gym, smiling cutely.

The old man laughed. "Good luck, lass! You'll need it! The leader of Viridian, Giovanni, will show no mercy!"

"Yes, sir, I know," she replied, obviously eager to get rid of him. "That's why I was off training at the forest; I'll be fine now."

Giovanni's training partner chuckled as she approached the pair. "Don't you worry for the lass here, old man; you may leave," she said in a commanding voice, and the old man obeyed as if hypnotized. Then she addressed the redhead: "The boss is currently out, hon. _I_ will be taking care of _you,_ for now," she purred, narrowing her eyes like a calculating Persian.

"Oh, really?" The younger woman's Pokéball was already on her hand, ready to be thrown.

"Yes, really!" the older woman roared gleefully, taking out one of her own Pokéballs. "Let us play then, little Skitty. My name is Sird," she presented herself as an afterthought.

"Well, _Sird,_ let me return the favor: I'm Ariana, and I hail from Sinnoh, and _I am going to defeat you!_"

**

* * *

Author's notes: **I had been thinking about this from the moment I first saw Ariana's design for the HGSS games, and once I scrubbed the Goldenrod Radio Tower's floor with her Pokémon, I was convinced that I should write this story down and publish it. So here you have it! (also, now that I'm in Peru, with my hair dyed in a cute shade of red, I got to know my own boss, whose name is _Ghiovanni_—proving that life likes amusing situations—, and this was an event that fully convinced me to sit down and write until my fingers bled and my head hurted… and the chapter was finished and up here; there you go! Again!)

**Story comments:** I have the very bad feeling that I'm the only one writing on the pairing of Giovanni/Ariana. However, I'll keep on writing if you feel you need to know more. The premise itself was already covered, though: Giovanni already told Silver how he met Ariana, who is supposed to be Silver's mother… mostly in my head-canon only. But, admit it, I pulled off a shameless cliffhanger with the start of the battle between freaky Sird and young Ariana. And, don't resist it; you _want_ to ask for more… And, you know? I have more ideas…!

**Reader requests:** I honestly want to know how many people support Giovanni/Ariana, and that Ariana is Silver's mom; I ask from this people that they review and share their opinion. If you only want the story to continue, you can put it on your Alerts and it'll be enough.


	2. Chapter 2

**Two Garnets and some Cherries with Cream**

Chapter 2 of ?

_By Kayi S. Rowling_

* * *

"Oh, really?" The younger woman's Pokéball was already on her hand, ready to be thrown.

"Yes, really!" the older woman roared gleefully, taking out one of her own Pokéballs. "Let us play then, little Skitty. My name is Sird," she presented herself as an afterthought.

"Well, _Sird,_ let me return the favor: I'm Ariana, and I hail from Sinnoh, and _I am going to defeat you—!_"

* * *

—Silver remained _tired._

However, now that Giovanni had started narrating his engrossing story and that he had paused after such a critical moment, Silver couldn't think of sleeping anymore. He was even _sitting down_ on his bed. "_Sird_ was there?" was the first thing out of his mouth after a full minute of silence. "What was she doing at your gym? And wait… She was your so-called _trusted partner?_" The woman who had turned him and his friends into _stone?_ And had dressed him like the clown of a bad circus act? He couldn't believe it! "I can't believe it!" See?

"Yes, Sird was there," Giovanni replied, frowning. "And yes, I trusted her; perhaps too much," he admitted, apparently thinking back to those times. "She was the first to join the gym and begin training with me. By the time I met your mother, I had known Sird for more than half of my lifetime. She practically raised me through puberty, too!" he chuckled, failing to notice how Silver's expression soured.

_That _bit about Sird raising him was creepy, Silver decided; far creepier than all the things he knew she had done in the past, even. He regretted having asked about her… "Can you continue now?" he asked, masking his eagerness to change the topic—and to hear more about his mother—rather well.

"What about a little break?" his father suggested, but only out of courtesy: _he_ was having a break, whether Silver wanted it or not.

"…fine."

"I'll go fetch a bottle of water. Do you want anything?"

Silver forced his mind to remember what he had put in the cooler the last time he was in the hideout. "A beer would be nice," he replied after a while.

But Giovanni obviously disapproved, if one went by the look he was throwing his son. "I'll get you some milk."

"Huh? _Milk?_ I'm not a _baby!_ I'm nearly twen—!"

"I'll get you some milk," his father repeated calmly, rising to his feet, leaving the "room" and his sulking son behind. He was back not a minute later, a bottle of water on one hand and a small carton of milk—white and brown in color, with a straw glued to the side—on the other. "Here you go," he offered, nearly smirking as a pair of silvery eyes glared at him and then at the offending drink that would ideally be a beer.

Regardless, Silver took it; he didn't fail to notice it was also _chocolate-flavored,_ adding insult to injury at the same time it made a warm feeling grow within his chest. He had stopped buying those after he took his father in, preferring to avoid the embarrassing situation of being _babied_ just because he liked them. And now, here there was one, somehow on his hand… "Thanks," he muttered. "Don't go out just to get these for me. It's dangerous," he added, reprimanding Giovanni in an odd case of role reversal as he practically stabbed the little box with the plastic straw.

The older man nodded, removing the cap of his bottle. "I know," he said before his smirk made itself more evident, "I actually sent your so-called _secretary_ for them."

Silver frowned. "Don't contact Team Rocket just because you can't go out. It's dangerous," he corrected his warning. He also made a mental note to talk to the former executive Ariana later about who was actually her boss now; he wouldn't be tolerating her rebellious attitude anymore.

The water bottle got to a half-empty state before Giovanni added in his defense: "It's not my fault that they are all so willing to do my bidding, even nowadays… And, Silver?"

"Yes?"

His father seemed to struggle for words to voice his request, but in the end he just shook his head and sighed. "Nothing, forget it; you must learn on your own how to deal with that bunch of misfits," he whispered. Then he cleared his throat. "Anyways, let's continue. Where was I…? Sird battling your mother, perhaps—?"

* * *

—Giovanni had decided to stay in his office to watch the match from his screen a minute ago, thinking it was the best idea in order not to miss a single bit of the battle. _Right now,_ however, he was beginning to regret not running for the emergency stairs earlier, as, at the moment, the gym below him was filled to the brim with the guys that had been training in the back, so that there was _literally no space left_ at the sidelines. The reason for such a crowd forming was simple: there had an odd kind of aura forming between the two women after they had exchanged their first words that could be felt even through the walls, and that tension promised an interesting encounter was about to happen. Again, all of that happened in _just a minute,_ such a short span of time that had, regardless, sent his good mood spiraling to the ground and below.

Anyway, the ever-efficient Archer practically ran to the two women before they threw their Pokéballs without formalizing the challenge; he even held back Sird's arm, risking a black eye. "Hold it, ladies!" he ordered, earning himself some booing from the audience.

The redhead lowered her own arm, clutching her Pokéball with both hands and proceeding to stand there idly, looking awkward, while Sird herself wrestled her limb out of Archer's grasp rudely before hissing at him: "I'm _busy_ here, four-eyes!" As always, whenever she got interrupted doing something she actually _wanted_ to do, Sird couldn't control her temper. However, Giovanni would have to congratulate her later, as she usually _exploded all over them,_ not _hissed and scowled…_

One of Archer's eyebrows went up over the rim of his ridiculously big glasses in amusement. "So am I," he replied simply, before turning to address the gym challenger. He cleared his throat. "Girl, our leader is currently out and can't battle you—"

"I already know that!" interrupted Ariana—Giovanni couldn't help the little ecstatic feeling that knowing her name gave him—, beginning to look as pissed off as Sird.

"—but Sird here is the best among us," Archer continued pointedly, also picking up the general bad mood that prevailed in the gym by now. "The only one who can defeat her up to this day is our leader, Giovanni. We consider that she's a worthy substitute, so we'll award you with the Earth Badge if you win against her." He made a pause, a time he used to take out said badge from his pocket and wave it in front of Ariana's face, taunting her along with a little smirk on his lips. "Three on three is fine with you?"

"I guess…" the redheaded girl replied, hesitating a little. Both Sird and Archer chuckled at that.

"Well, then; you can start now!" Cheers exploded at long last among the observers.

Sird didn't need to be told twice, releasing her Starmie not a second later… right in front of Archer. "Off the field with you!" Her Pokémon then proceeded to blast the young man away, knocking several others off their feet at the sidelines.

Ariana took several steps back in precaution, taking out her own Pokéball. She whispered something to it, her expression soft and kind, a sharp contrast to her glare just a moment ago. Giovanni had a very bad feeling about this change; he had seen _that face _before… "Go, Oddish!" she called, her Pokémon appearing a few feet away from Sird's own—

* * *

"—she called her Oddish out?" Silver asked in disbelief, his eyes wide open in shock.

His father shrugged; having seen it with his own eyes over twenty years ago really did wonders about that pesky belief thingy. "Yes, she did," he sighed. "It was almost faint-worthy, according to other witnesses, but, you know? Your mother _wasn't that dumb,_ as we would all find out minutes later—"

* * *

—Sird's eye twitched so visibly that even the security cameras got it.

And Giovanni could only _wish_ he felt the same as she did—_offended beyond repair_—, yet he only felt what he guessed was _nausea_ over the spectacular failure of good judgment, common sense and survival instinct. He wouldn't be surprised now to find out that Ariana had actually got herself _lost_ in Viridian Forest for a week, and that the old man who had brought her to the gym had found her wandering around aimlessly—

* * *

"—Silver, I want you to know that your mother was indeed training in Viridian Forest; she wasn't lost."

The redhead frowned. "Why did you interrupt yourself to tell me that?"

"Because your eyes were practically _begging_ that what I thought back then wasn't true. You're also rather pale right now."

"I'm fine…" Silver mumbled, turning away and sipping the very last drop of his chocolate-flavored milk.

Giovanni sighed. "If you say so—"

* * *

"—_what_ is _this?_" Sird growled at Ariana, unable to stop glaring at the innocent Oddish nearby. The waves of heated fury that radiated from her would turn their late autumn into midsummer if the younger trainer failed to make something to amend her serious mistake.

Ariana looked at the older woman in mild confusion. "It's an Oddish."

Sird chuckled in that sinister way she only used when she was ready to massacre someone's whole team. "Yeah, I know… Starmie, _Psychic, now!_" Giovanni couldn't help but nod in approval—even if nobody got to see it, even when he was actually siding with Ariana—; Sird still had her mind clear enough to recognize that their current Pokémon held a type disadvantage to each other simultaneously…

Ariana jumped at that, startled. "Oddish…! Eh…" _Too slow;_ she was rewarded by the sight of her Pokémon barely managing to throw itself to the side, Sird's Starmie still scoring quite a hit. "Synthesis!" Her Oddish was more than happy to comply.

"_That_ won't do you any good," the older woman purred, enjoying the opportunity to torture her opponent in revenge for the shame of having to defeat such Pokémon in front of everyone else. She was fine with being a bully toward _people,_ not Pokémon. "We're in an enclosed space; there's a limited amount of sunlight, you know?"

Finally, the redhead perked up. "I can fix that," she replied, reaching to take something out of her bag. "Oddish! Sunny Day!"

And then Giovanni was _thankful_ for having stayed in the office, as Ariana's Oddish seemed to be rather _good_ with that particular non-damaging move; the way the guys at the sidelines shrieked like a colony of Zubat as the sunlight filtering through the windows increased—to the point that they were convinced that the sun was _just outside,_ watching the battle as well—, while Sird herself threw her arm over her eyes and had her Starmie shrinking back even when lacking eyes itself, convinced him of it. Ariana had simply put on her sunglasses, apparently already knowing _really well_ how awful it could get, and _obviously_ having planned to use the move sooner or later. Also, the gym leader began doubting his initial judgment on the challenger right then: the Oddish family _didn't learn Sunny Day or Synthesis naturally,_ after all…

"Well?" Ariana called at Sird, hands on her hips.

The other woman growled, letting her arm drop to her side and forcing her eyes to open. "It still won't do you any good, honey. But in acknowledgement of your rather ridiculous attempt at actually _doing something useful,_ I'll also try to do only minor damage to your little leafed friend…"

Then she hurried to her Starmie's side, taking good care to pat it comfortingly to let it know that everything was _fine,_ strong sunlight or not; it stood back up and stretched in response to her encouragements. This was something she had learned she had to do with this particular Pokémon from Giovanni, who had told her that her Starmie could be intimidated easily thanks to the careless way she had captured and trained it in the past, when it was a young Staryu, probably just hatched when she found it in the wild. She never failed to show it some affection and such since then, and Giovanni held her in even higher esteem for having those considerations for her Pokémon.

…but she also took her chance to give her order from up close: "BubbleBeam!"

Type advantage or not, Ariana's Oddish took another good beating. "Synthesis again, Oddish! Otherwise…" she bit her lip in worry.

"You can't keep using Synthesis forever!" Sird barked at her, her anger growing _again._

"Oddish, Tackle her Starmie!" Her Pokémon looked up at her as if she had just grown another head. Giovanni understood _why_ quite clearly. "It doesn't matter if that woman is hiding behind it; it's her problem!" And _that_ wasn't the reason. However, the gym leader began wondering whether that phrase had been uttered out of actual ignorance or…

Either way, the tuft of leaves rushed forward and did a _really mediocre Tackle attempt_ at Sird's Starmie, which didn't even waver. "Was _that_ for real?" the older woman asked, looking plainly confused. That same expression was on all the onlookers' faces, too.

Ariana blushed to the roots of her hair. "Yes?" she squeaked.

Sird began snickering manically in disbelief, falling to the side of her beloved Pokémon. "Well… Let's get this over with, Starmie; Psychic, again," she said after a while, probably already tired of the rollercoaster of conflicting emotions she had been subject to since Ariana had put her foot in the gym.

Ariana then did something _nobody_ was expecting her to do: she removed her sunglasses, and she clapped once.

Her Oddish made a leap back onto her outstretched arms, avoiding the attack entirely, leaving everyone to wonder _why_ it hadn't done that before when attacked. "Are you recalling it?" Sird inquired.

"You won't be able to bring it out again if you do," Archer called from the crowd.

Ariana chuckled. "No, I'm not going to do that," she replied. "Leg," she commanded her Pokémon, which held out its tiny leg to her, where a bracelet-like thing had been made to fit. Giovanni nearly cursed aloud from his office, realizing that the girl _actually had a plan:_ the cluelessness, her Oddish knowing Sunny Day and Synthesis, it doing a Tackle—a move _no member_ of its family could learn _at all,_ no matter what was done—that was an utter failure, and now _this bracelet_—

* * *

"—and what was that bracelet?" Silver asked.

Giovanni turned his now empty water bottle on his hands. "It was the way your mother carried a particular little stone," he paused solely for dramatic effect, "an Everstone."

The pause had its intended effect of heightening the shock of the reveal, as Silver's eyebrows shooting up clearly indicated. "You don't say…" he muttered absentmindedly. "Isn't that against the rules or something?"

"Given the way we loved to stomp over our challengers, the gym had a very peculiar rule written down in the books back then: the challengers were allowed to do _anything_ in their first attempt at winning the badge," Giovanni told him. "It was _technically illegal,_ but most trainers that came didn't know about it either, so we _never_ got into trouble for it; several novices invoked it on accident, too, but it wasn't our problem if they got called out on it later. However, as I said before, your mother _wasn't dumb,_ and she had done a thorough investigation of my gym—I _still _don't know _how,_ but I have my suspicions—, and she _purposefully_ invoked the rule in her favor to get away with her unorthodox strategy." Silver blushed all of a sudden, and he let his hair fall forward to hide his face. "What's wrong?" his father asked, concerned.

"I can't believe that _both my parents_ aren't people I can assure my friends are law-abiding citizens, _at all,_" he whispered, feeling his eyes sting as shame piled up. In an even lower tone, he added: "Gold can do it, as can Crystal… and those two lovebirds in Hoenn… _and Blue, too!_ What will she _think_ when she finds out?" He already knew for a fact that Gold would bother him for the rest of his life, and the others didn't matter because he didn't get along with them that much, but Blue…

Giovanni coughed uncomfortably at the bits he could hear. Regardless, he decided to play another card for increased amusement: "Your mother joined Team Rocket too."

"_Eh?_" The redhead's face was _priceless._

"On with the story—!"

* * *

"—this—"

* * *

"—_no!_" Silver protested loudly. "Wait just a minute there! You can't continue until you tell me more about that! How is it that she joined Team Rocket?"

"I can't tell you unless you let me continue with the story," Giovanni countered, making his son growl in frustration. "You sound like your mother," he commented, unable to hold back the smirk. "Either way, I'll tell you something to ease your mind: your mother was _never_ a criminal."

"I don't believe you…" Silver sighed sadly. It made no sense if she _wasn't. _"Just leave it like that. Go on, continue narrating; I'm listening."

"As you wish—"

* * *

"—this thing right here… I did it myself," Ariana confessed to the curious onlookers. "I set an Everstone onto this old bracelet to stop my Oddish from evolving… Poor thing, I know it should have long ago." She slowly pulled and turned it until she got it off her Pokémon's leg. "There, Oddish; ready when you are," she told it sweetly, letting it hop back onto the ground. It immediately began shining, changing…

Sird scoffed. "Well, now it will evolve into a Gloom; so what? It's still a part-poison type and vulnerable to my Starmie from that angle, even more so now that it will be bigger and easier to aim at."

"Well, you have a type advantage from _that angle;_ so what?" Ariana mimicked, smirking. "SolarBeam, Gloom!"

"_What?_" Sird hissed.

And Giovanni _laughed._ He couldn't help it; he just did, and he didn't bother keeping it down, since he knew nobody could hear him. He was pleased that Ariana was proving to be quite an entertainment not only visually, but also in the way she pulled off surprise after surprise time and again. After all, her strategy had pieced together quite nicely: by making Sird underestimate her, she'd called upon the necessary sunlight with the Synthesis excuse, with the intention to beam her Starmie off the battlefield.

…a fate that Sird's Pokémon was barely spared of. It was severely weakened, however, and some of its tips had folded in exhaustion. "Starmie!" the older woman gasped. "_You…!_ Starmie, hold on, just one more time—!"

"Gloom, another SolarBeam!"

"—Psychic!"

Someone in the crowd cursed loudly, while another called the whole deal "madness." Then the first round of the battle was over.

Ariana's cry was muffled by both her hands, but since the whole gym had fallen silent, it was heard as clearly as they could see her tears running down her cheeks. She ran to her fainted Gloom's side, she called its name…

"Gloom can't continue fighting," Archer announced the obvious to the audience while he approached the redhead. He whispered something into her ear, laying a comforting hand on her trembling shoulder—Giovanni knew it meant nothing, but he still saw _red_—, before she shook her head and took out Gloom's Pokéball. "Are you sure?" Archer asked for confirmation, adjusting his glasses with his free hand.

"I can handle it. I just hadn't expected this turn of events," she whispered back. She turned to recall her Pokémon, planting a kiss on the Pokéball once Gloom was safely stored inside. "Good job. You were wonderful out there." She stood up abruptly, making Archer stumble backwards. The glare was back on her garnet red eyes, and it was focused solely on Sird. "Well, that was a rather nasty move."

Sird chuckled, not minding Ariana's rising anger that much. "You started it, little Skitty. Battling against me is serious business, for your information; you strike hard, _and I strike back harder._"

"Yeah, I know. I just saw it," Ariana admitted, taking out a tissue to dry her tears up. "Now I fear this will become an escalating battle, though, as I'm not particularly fond of not repaying others in kind."

Giovanni watched in amusement as Archer dragged himself hastily over to the sidelines as Ariana retrieved her next Pokéball from the very bottom of her bag. He was truly sorry she hadn't won against Sird's Starmie; it had been a matter of fast reflexes, in order to catch those last rays of sunlight before Sunny Day no longer had an effect. Gloom hadn't managed to do it in time, and, in the end, it hadn't shot a thing at Starmie. It _could_ have ended in a draw otherwise. Such a pity…

"Off with that Starmie, now!" the redhead ordered in a vicious growl, throwing the Pokéball forward. In less than a blink, her wish was granted, even when nobody had seen a thing.

But Sird's Pokémon fell to the ground just the same, and it wouldn't even _twitch_ at hearing its mistress's calls. She bit her lip, holding back all her begging for Starmie to rise, and, acknowledging defeat this one time, she recalled it. However, she waited until she had a good look at Ariana's next Pokémon before she selected her own; whatever it was, it jumped swiftly all over the room, startling the onlookers for the pleasure of it…

It lastly came to rest by Ariana's legs, and the only thing the redhead had to say to it was a mildly bothered: "That was _slow,_ Weavile—"

* * *

"—I guess that explains how my very first Pokémon was a Sneasel," Silver spoke at long last, a little fond smile playing on his lips.

Giovanni sighed. "Indeed, that was no accident: your mother specifically bred her Weavile to give its child to you for your first birthday. Sird was also involved on that, as she owned a rather… _flirty_ Ditto back then, which she let your mother borrow," he explained, rubbing his own arm awkwardly as Silver scowled in distaste. It wasn't serious enough so that he'd start disliking his own Weavile, but knowing Sird helped was bad enough to leave a mark in his memory forever. "Sorry; that was too much information, wasn't it?"

His son nodded. He changed the topic next: "My mother didn't lie to you back there in the train, did she?" he chuckled in amusement. "She _did_ have quite an advantage against the Pokémon in your gym, after all; _grass and ice…_ Did she ever battle against you?"

"Yes. Yes, she did," Giovanni replied, chuckling as well. "But she never had the pleasure of defeating me, not even six on one, which is why we both began preferring to tag battle when training together." He seemed to remember those moments rather fondly, if one went by the expression on his face alone.

"I guess it's a shame that you can't fight anymore… We could have arranged a meeting between you two," Silver muttered, crossing his arms, clenching and tugging lightly at his clothes with his hands.

Giovanni patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about that. She's happy enough to talk with me through the phone every now and then."

The redhead sighed in exasperation. "Stop contacting Team Rocket members behind my back! Even if it's about my mom, it could encourage the others to oppose me even more than they do already!" Giovanni smirked at him, causing him to blush lightly. "What?" he nearly spat.

"You just called her _mom._ She's going to be ecstatic when I tell her about it."

Silver's blush deepened in color and rose to his hairline. "You aren't telling her _that!_" he hissed. After all, for him, words such as "mom" and "dad" were only used by babies, girls and spoilt kids. He had just let it slip past his usually high defenses, though… And his father's comment made him wonder whether or not he had ever used those words before Mask of Ice kidnapped him.

He regretted his reaction right away, and, lowering his gaze, he told his father he took back his request for him to keep silent about his little slip of the tongue. "Thanks for allowing me to tell her. I can record her squeals for you, if you want, as a little compensation for your sacrifice."

He was being mocked. He didn't care. "Whatever. Just keep telling me about the battle with Sird; you're going far too slowly."

Giovanni shrugged. "Fine with me, though talking to you amuses me more than reminiscing—"

* * *

—Giovanni couldn't help but notice the difference in the attitudes Ariana showed to each of her two Pokémon: her Oddish, now a Gloom, was treated with the utmost kindness, while she growled at and bossed around her Weavile. "If Sird had chosen a Slowpoke just now, you'd be left biting its dust!" She also insulted it in creatively abusive ways. And he was surprised when her Weavile actually _snickered._ They had one of those rough friendship deals going on, apparently, in comparison to Gloom, who was babied by its mistress.

"I don't own a Slowpoke," Sird admitted aloud, drawing Ariana's attention back to herself. "Nor would I want to now, considering the type and speed of your Pokémon would leave me in a serious disadvantage." One Pokéball was dropped to her feet; a Meowth was released, which proceeded to rub its face against her leather boots. "This little guy was a gift by a good friend of mine, to whom I lent a Ditto a while back. He just hatched last week, too. Please, be kind to him, little Skitty; you kittens should stick together, after all."

Ariana was taken aback by that revelation, and her Weavile visibly hesitated to start attacking thanks to its owner's doubts. And the worst thing was that _Sird wasn't lying;_ her Meowth had indeed just hatched last week, to her great joy and everyone else's great amusement. Nobody could see Sird liking or doing cute things, so she had been on the receiving end of a lot of jokes… until she gave all her money to the noble cause of getting him a Quick Claw and four Technical Machines, and then proceeded to win her first battle with him and him alone. Giovanni really hoped Ariana, who had already used a strategy involving being underestimated, wouldn't fall for the same trick when thrown back at her face.

And she didn't. "Weavile, if you don't finish that Meowth off in the following five minutes, you are _out_ of my chosen party." The swift ice type tensed at that, and, swallowing up its regret at having to attack a Pokémon _that young,_ it threw itself forward, claws and fangs at the ready.

Sird smirked. "Meowth, _Iron Tail._"

The Quick Claw tied around the kitten's neck got him out of the way of Weavile's rather free-styled onslaught—it wasn't the same as Gloom's failed tackle, Giovanni realized; it was just that Ariana wasn't commanding it to do _anything specific_—, and he managed to strike the ice type down quite hard. The poor Pokémon even _bleed_ afterward from a gash on its back. The redhead winced at that, her hands hurrying to her bag's pockets as she tried to find what the gym leader guessed was a Potion or a similar medicine; her Weavile just rose again and dove for the Meowth in front of it, clearly angered.

"I won't allow you to be hit, Meowth," Sird assured her Pokémon. "_U-turn!_"

"What is that…?" Ariana wondered aloud, still searching for that Potion. "I don't even…!"

…and then her Weavile was struck and it fell to the ground unceremoniously, not having scored a single hit against Sird's Meowth, who switched out for a Ditto. Giovanni could only face palm as he clearly saw Sird's Ditto wriggling its "eyebrows" suggestively at the fainting Weavile, who just _glared back._

"Next!" the older woman called aloud, as the crowd exploded in laughter at how easily her baby Meowth had won.

Ariana fell to her knees for the second time that day, and she crawled over to her fallen Pokémon. "Oh, dear…" she whispered in distress, a hand held to her lips. The other held on to an unused Hyper Potion.

Archer was on her shoulder again. "Weavile can't continue fighting," he announced, as was his duty. "Are you alright?" he asked the redhead. "You're looking rather pale." She whispered something unintelligible back at him. "What, again?"

"I said: _I don't have any other Pokémon! _I… I lost already."

* * *

**Author's notes: **Good Lord, it took me forever to update! (but, at least, I did) Anyways, I don't know how she manages to do it, but Ariana has gotten the last word on both published chapters so far by the time I run into the informal "word limit" I imposed on myself. She's _good!_

**Story comments:** This chapter is less upbeat than the previous, I know. But, then again, I wanted to do the battle between Sird and Ariana in great detail. In _painfully great detail._ You have to admit that _that_ has no way to turn out happy in the end; we're lucky Ariana wasn't transformed into a rock for all her trouble! I also hope you liked my lame attempt at a bit of action in this chapter, as well as the many reveals all over the place (I lost count of them halfway through)

**Reader requests:** As always, if you want the story to continue, put it in your Alerts. However, if you have anything to say about how my action scenes sucked so hard I should be forbidden to do them anymore, _or if you actually liked them, _don't forget to leave your review. I'd like to know which reveals and twists you won't be forgetting anytime soon, too…And you might want to know this: I have ideas for a side-story on the relationship between Sird and Giovanni before this fic, as well as a short _omake_ of sorts about Giovanni calling Ariana to send her out to buy that precious chocolate-flavored milk. It depends on your response whether I actually go ahead with those or not.


	3. Chapter 3

**Two Garnets and some Cherries with Cream**

Chapter 3 of ?

_By Kayi S. Rowling_

* * *

Ariana fell to her knees for the second time that day, and she crawled over to her fallen Pokémon. "Oh, dear…" she whispered in distress, a hand held to her lips. The other held on to an unused Hyper Potion.

Archer was on her shoulder again. "Weavile can't continue fighting," he announced, as was his duty. "Are you alright?" he asked the redhead. "You're looking rather pale." She whispered something unintelligible back at him. "What, again?"

"I said: _I don't have any other Pokémon! _I… I lost already—"

* * *

—Silver was still _tired._

And the way the battle had ended was so _unsatisfying _and_ depressing_ his mood also _soured,_ making it all worse. "You don't look very happy," his father stated the biggest understatement of the _century,_ interrupting his own narration.

"How come my mother, with a _fully-grown_ Weavile, could lose so fast to a _baby_ Meowth?" the redhead voiced the first question that came to mind of a potential thousand.

Giovanni shrugged. "It was your mother's first Pokémon battle _ever. _Against a _trainer,_ of course," he clarified when Silver stared at him openmouthed. "Also, Sird admitted that she had noticed that her Meowth was strong from the moment he hatched, thing she actually took advantage of, but she couldn't explain why as she wasn't much into breeding Pokémon—she only lent her Ditto to others—yet _Petrel_ was. When I asked him about that Meowth he had gifted her with, and almost with the same words you just used, he explained," he hesitated, "_something_ I already forgot, I guess, that made it very clear that her Meowth was _special… _somehow." Never before in his life had Silver felt such a compelling desire to _giggle._ Obviously his father hadn't been paying attention to Petrel…

…and he couldn't truly blame him, really. Because, as far as he cared, Petrel didn't know much, didn't _do_ much, and had little to no talent in any area outside of his makeup kits. Which he _excelled at,_ reaching such levels of skill that sent shivers of dread running down his spine. This, in turn, made him be grateful that the guy didn't do much else, closing the cycle partially: who knew if Petrel was actually doing other things with the face of another person, _excelling _at them as well?

Silver involuntarily shuddered; he _hated_ thinking about _that._ It made him feel so _out of control_ of what actually happened within Team Rocket. Just like Archer's efficiency and ruthlessness, the perfect schemer and treacherous advisor. And Proton's popularity coupled with his violent mood swings, the perfect rebel—and possibly _terrorist_—leader. And Ariana's… well, he had proof that she was leading a _freaking cult_ somewhere outside of Kanto and Johto, which had to be _very bad news_ indeed, considering he also had proof that _one-third_ of the current membership of Team Rocket belonged to it. And hadn't _Archer_ given him that proof…?

_Damn,_ these guys were actually _dangerous!_ Where had his father found them, anyways? The deepest pits of the Distortion World, perhaps?

"What's wrong?" Giovanni asked after a minute of silence, during which the room's temperature had apparently dropped several degrees.

Silver shook his head. "I was just thinking about your choices for your direct underlings." And Sird popped into his mind to further torture him. She hadn't yet _quit,_ after all…

"That's rather… out of the blue."

"Yeah, I know," the redhead admitted, defeated. "Anyways, what happened to my mother after she lost? How well did she take it?" he chose to steer the conversation back to a safer topic.

Giovanni sighed, running a hand through his brown hair. "Well, she _cried_ when her Gloom lost, then she _cried again_ when her Weavile did—and you just don't _know_ how much I _hate_ seeing her like that—and it didn't get any better from there—"

* * *

—the Viridian gym leader was, understandably, upset. Not only had Ariana—his potential love interest—lost, not only was she _crying_ now, but Archer had started _bullying_ her immediately after she admitted she had entered a three versus three challenge _without_ having a full team; whatever he had whispered into her ear made her blush in indignation _and _glare at him as he took a step back for his own safety. "For a moment there, I actually thought you were quite smart. You're an excellent actress, though, I'll give you that…" he then sighed aloud, shrugging and shaking his head, eliciting some dark chuckles from the crowd, which was dispersing as some headed back to the training room and others left to go fetch something to eat or whatever, with a few staying around to close in around the trio at the center, wondering what else would be said and done.

"All of this was so… _dumb._ Such a waste of time," Sird hissed, frowning and recalling her Ditto. "I don't think you had the experience to come and fight here yet, hon. And I would suggest you to _stay away_ from real battles until you actually _grow up._" She turned on her heels and marched away, heading for the stairs that led to Giovanni's little office, which prompted him to rise to his feet from his desk and go take the emergency stairs _out._

Not that he was afraid of what Sird would say or anything; though he admitted that he _was_ afraid, but of the fact that _Ariana_ was practically alone with _all the others_ now. They weren't known for their manners with the ladies, and they respected their female members solely because one—namely Sird—was _frightening _enough on her own, not to mention the guy who was _courting her _was _really_ intimidating;the second was _Proton's mother,_ and kind of a surrogate mother for the rest of them anyways, so they naturally liked her very much; and the last was an eleven-year-old girl, who nobody even _dared_ bothering because she was still a child.

And now, without an intense "girl on girl" Pokémon battle going on to distract them, they were going to realize the same thing Giovanni himself had when he had met Ariana back in Saffron City's train station: she was _young_ but _legal,_ she was most probably _single,_ and she was _very_ attractive even when she wasn't exactly _beautiful_—

* * *

"—I'm beginning to think you are saying that _on purpose,_" Silver interrupted, not exactly amused.

"No, I'm not," his father replied. Then he chuckled humorlessly: "Though you could say I'm still resentful over something she said once…"

The redhead almost winced, and then nodded sympathetically. "It was the _I-like-your-personality_ card, wasn't it?"

Giovanni nodded absentmindedly. "She said something like that a couple of times, yes, but she offended me _far more_ when she flat-out called me ugly." _That _was, indeed, not nice, but Silver wasn't about to go into that topic. He wasn't a judge of male attractiveness; that was gay.

"You hadn't angered her beforehand, had you?" Because he knew some women went out of their way to hurt a man who had wronged them; the only one he knew that _didn't,_ actually, was _Yellow,_ as he had to admit even _Blue_ could be rather nasty if provoked. "And are you sure she wasn't joking or something?" Misunderstandings like those were as old as time too, after all…

"She seemed pretty honest to me, and she was in a fairly good mood too," Giovanni explained. "And the times I've asked her about it, she always replies with something akin to _I still like you,_" the older man sighed. "Anyways—and _again_—if it bothers you, I'll say she was beautiful or something…"

Silver stopped him before he could continue with the story: "Do _you_ think she was—or is—beautiful, at least?" He wasn't going to push his father to say things he didn't mean.

Giovanni coughed uncomfortably. "Your mother _is_ the most beautiful living being in the universe, from _my_ perspective," he admitted, blushing a little bit. "But I _truly_ believe she _wasn't _so back then; at best, she was _attractive._" A word Silver had begun suspecting that, in his father's vocabulary, probably meant "hot." Considering that Giovanni had been around his own age back then, he could understand "attractiveness" being a priority, though the shift from perceiving her as "only hot" then as "incredibly beautiful" still puzzled him… Was it an instance of rose-tinted glasses, a side-effect of being madly in love with her to this day? Or was it some personal kink he'd have to figure out?

Silver shuddered involuntarily again. Figure out a _kink_ of one of his _parents?_ He was truly _tired,_ wasn't he? And enough not to think straight anymore, too!

"Are you alright? You just keep shuddering…" his father asked, concerned.

The redhead nodded. "I'm fine; it's just that my mind keeps wandering off to thoughts I don't really want in my head." A phrase that could win a prize for awkwardness, if the older man's face right then was anything to go by.

"Well—"

* * *

—the emergency stairs led Giovanni to the typical small space with two doors: the actual evacuation route, and the one that connected to the rest of the gym. However, this particular space was obviously managed by _bachelors,_ so it was actually some sort of closet and was rather messy; he couldn't help realizing that the door out was impossible to be _reached,_ let alone _opened, _which sent an unwelcome wave of panic through him. He'd have to talk to Archer about it, to have the way cleared in case there was ever an emergency. _Like a fire…_ He recovered his composure and opened the door to the gym.

And Ariana wasn't there anymore, thing he realized by being unable to spot her characteristic red hair, and by the fact that the guys who had stayed behind to bother her were dispersing while looking _bothered._ Not in the same sense, of course. "Hi, boss," Proton passed by his side, dragging his feet and moving the soil that made up the battlefield. Ground types were their specialty, after all. Or so they wanted people to believe. "Why so serious?" the guy dared asking, deciding to hang around to see if the boredom would go away.

"Don't be a creep, you idiot," he harshly replied, earning a smirk from the other. "What happened?"

"Well, this _really hot_ chick came by to challenge you, but the mummy beat her and she ran away crying like a baby!" Proton recounted in an extremely summarized way, laughing all the while. Giovanni's frown just deepened with each word. "It's a shame you were up there sulking all alone, like you've done all the week; I'm sure that gal would have _cheered you up, _if you know what I mean!" Always the unfunny one, wasn't he?

"Why are you so _sure?_" It barely got out with a non-threatening tone.

"Because it's kind of _suspicious _that you took to lock yourself up, if you know what I mean; you obviously need to get…" he began, yet he trailed off when he turned around. "_Woah, _boss! Don't glare at me like that! I was just joking!" He even held his hands up, both in surrender and readying to protect his face.

Giovanni sighed in exasperation. "Where's Archer?" he asked, deciding to change the topic before Proton's words became even more _offensive,_ pushing him to actually _punch_ the guy. He also wanted a more reliable source of information.

"Ponytail-geek went to report from the intercom in the other room. Shame you aren't up there anymore to hear his whining," he added the last in a whisper.

"And Petrel?" He _swore_ he had seen him hanging around from the monitor.

Proton shrugged. "Off to sell his wares. It's almost night-time, after all." The _dark side_ of his team… At the very least, two thirds of the membership of his gym was made out of people with a notable criminal record in their—usually _very nasty_—background; and half of that people were _repeat offenders._

Giovanni belonged to the former group himself, if only for the fact that his mother had been a mafia princess whose beloved father held the combined underworld of Kanto and Johto under his control. He didn't like admitting this fact, but he had _never_ hesitated to call upon a couple of favors here and there either. Even though his permission to open a gym came from the combined effort of his own talent and of the influence of his father's own reputation as a gym leader in another region, _the gym itself_—and all of its extensions—was another story, for example. And, once, the League heard a—true—rumor about his family, which prompted them to demand he gave up the leadership; he was still _really young_ back then, and he had made a suggestion about using gym training to rehabilitate criminals to live normal lives and such _idealistic nonsense,_ and they only bought the idea once his mother's friends had a "nice chat" with them. Which kind of _explained_ why his team was made of thugs and the like; he had been such an _idiot_ when younger…

He shook his head to rid it of all those disturbing thoughts, and then turned to glare at the local repeat sex offender. "Proton, any idea about where the girl ran off to?" he asked, more worried than ever for Ariana's safety after a quick recap on his own background.

The guy sensed his bad mood and abstained from making another dumb joke, though Giovanni could see it practically at the tip of his tongue. "Nobody followed her, so I can't call anyone to ask." Trust the molester to have his eyes on _everybody._ "But if I was a crybaby that just lost a battle, I'd return home—or the closest substitute, like, say, an apartment or a hotel room—or go to the nearest Pokécenter."

"If anybody asks, I went out," the gym leader said gruffly before stomping away in search of Ariana, grateful at least that _nobody_ had followed her—

* * *

"—that's a lot of information to take in," Silver complained, interrupting Giovanni's narration as only he knew how to do.

"What do you mean?" his father asked, genuinely confused.

Silver sighed and sat up straighter on the bed. "My _grandmother_ was with the _mafia, _and _your father_ was a _gym leader?_ And Proton is a _repeat sex offender?_ What did he mean by _wares_ when talking about Petrel? _Why_ is it that _you_ were surrounded by _criminals,_ and you let _that_ be?"

Giovanni frowned and closed his eyes, his fingers pressing the bridge of his nose. "My mother was _born_ into the mafia; it's not something you get to _choose,_ as I know and as you surely know yourself. Generations upon generations of our family have led the underworld in these regions, and held influences even out of the country. Just because none of us _wanted_ to be part of it they were going to let us have our way. My mother married a fairly decent gym leader, yet incredibly negligent man, who took a while to realize _who_ she was, and then left us. By that time, my grandfather was dead, so his most loyal followers practically _crowned_ my mother _queen;_ perhaps out of _tradition,_ because most of them were far more _competent._ Then, at the age of nine, shortly after the opening of the Viridian City gym, my mother died and I inherited the control."

And now that Giovanni was dying of his illness, _Silver himself_ was going to succeed him, whether he wanted it or not, the redhead deduced; Team Rocket was just _a little step_ in the wrong direction, before he actually sunk in the quicksand. How was he going to handle _that?_ In his renewed despair, his envy at Gold's _insane_ amount of luck in family matters sparked alive again. At this pace, he was going to have to punch his former rival in the face every single time he saw him just to be able to handle the unfairness of it all.

"On Proton and Petrel," his father continued, "they are a repeat sex offender and a never-jailed thief, respectively. Petrel's wares were stolen stuff… usually; he was also into piracy. And, just for your information, Archer himself was a _lawyer,_ and he got those two out of more messes than stars can be counted on the sky, and he also handled everyone else's cases, allowing the gym to continue going without involving the League again nor the police. In between him and Sird, I practically had _all I needed_ for the gym to run as I wanted it, no use denying it, so I didn't care much about the criminals I led," Giovanni confessed.

Someone was _missing…_ "What about Ariana?"

His father's expression soured. "Ariana?" he asked for confirmation; the redhead nodded. "Half an hour after I met her, more or less, I realized that she took her religious beliefs _far more seriously_ than she had initially led me to believe." He took a pause and shuddered. So Ariana had been a cultist all her life? "Just a tip, son: _never_ call her religion a _cult,_ or she will _kill you._" Fine; so Ariana had been a very religious person all her life? How _normal_ of her, compared to the three others, and Sird…

"You seem very alive for that last statement to be true," Silver pointed out.

"Your… secretary let it pass. She said she'd forgive me because we had just met." The older man coughed uncomfortably. "Let's continue, then—"

* * *

—Giovanni had lost a minute or two going back for his coat and a hat, after the cooling air outside reminded him that it wasn't summertime anymore. Sird had tried to intercept him on his way back in, but she was mostly unsuccessful. "We'll talk later! Or tomorrow!" he had said hastily.

She threw his scarf at his head as he retreated. "If you catch a cold, I'll turn off the boiler." Yikes!

Either way, he took the scarf and ran off toward the Pokécenter. If he hurried, he _might_ be able to find Ariana before she _disappeared._ Because, really, was there a _point_ in staying after such painful defeat? And after she had been told that _only_ he, the gym leader, could beat Sird? She'd probably be too intimidated to try _ever again,_ for fear of facing either of them…

And Proton deserved a _prize_ for the sudden development of _clairvoyance: _Ariana _was_ at the Center.

Still _crying,_ and now even _begging _at the nurse at the counter. Had something gone wrong?

"Please, _please,_ I _swear_ I'm not lying. I _do_ have a license for Kanto and Johto; you _have_ to believe me! I must have misplaced it, but I have it. _Please,_ heal my Pokémon." The nurse sighed, shaking her head slowly. "_Please! _Please help them!" Ariana cried again. "They are only two, and…"

"I'm sorry, but regional healing services tend only to regional trainers, or trainers who present a license along with their ID," the nurse said calmly. It seemed as if she'd been repeating that phrase for a while now—

* * *

"—we ran into a situation like that once," Silver commented. "In Hoenn," he added.

Giovanni visibly tensed. He didn't like being reminded of _that_ region by his son, because it reminded him of Sird's betrayal. "Yes, I guess you did. It's an unusually widespread thing, and proof that the government doesn't know what it is doing. Hurt Pokémon are hurt Pokémon, whether owned by someone from Kanto or from Sinnoh, like was your mother's case. But with the _public funds_ excuse…"

The redhead interrupted him before their relatively nice night of talking and reminiscing went down the drain by the interference of _politics:_ "Yellow helped us back then, with her Viridian Forest powers. I know you have some of those. Did you help my mother with them then?" He'd always been curious about his father's own abilities…

His father only shook his head. "I helped her in a way that would make it clear to that nurse that she had bullied the wrong person." Neat! Somehow, Silver liked that answer much better that anything else Giovanni could have said. "Anyways, let me explain to you how it went—"

* * *

—Ariana would not relent, though. "I can pay, if needed. Just heal them, _please!_" She tried another suggestion next, not allowing the nurse to say another word: "You can heal them while I go search for my stolen things. If I fail to show up… you can give them away to more capable trainers," she told the other woman, sobbing even when she seemed quite sure _that_ was the best choice. "Just, _please,_ heal them! They are only two. _Only two,_ not too many…"

"Not _one_ can be healed here if the trainer is from another region and has no license to train here, or in Johto," the woman at the counter explained. Then the nurse looked over Ariana's shoulder as he approached; he lowered his hat a little bit, hoping the illumination was on his side.

"_Please…!_" Giovanni's hand fell upon Ariana's shoulder right then, and she both _froze_ and _shut up._ She didn't even turn around to face him or anything. She just _trembled,_ actually.

The nurse was just _curious_ now, though, so Giovanni pulled the redhead away from the counter some steps, to the nearest wall, still within the nurse's earshot so the woman could fill her gossip gauge for the day. "Calm down. I'm going to help you," he whispered to Ariana, letting go of her shoulder.

…this was, apparently, the wrong move, because she immediately collapsed to her knees, one hand pushing against the wall, seemingly the only thing that had stopped her from hitting it head on.

"Are you alright?" he asked, kneeling beside her and grabbing her shoulder again, shaking it a little bit when he received no answer except some unintelligible whispering in between each deep breath she took. His eyes caught sight of a golden chain that he had learned in the train she usually hid under her clothes, and her other hand was holding on to _that scary ring_ she used for a pendant. Giovanni understood then that she was actually _praying;_ he nearly face palmed. "Drop that thing!" he ordered her, a little bit harsher than he had intended. She winced and did as told. "Sorry… But I'm going to help you. Give me your Pokémon; I'll have them healed for you."

Her garnet eyes weren't as bright when she looked as defeated as he guessed she felt. They _did_ light up a bit once she recognized him, though. "Fine; here," she said, then handed him the Pokéballs without hesitation. "And… hello again," she added, her tear-stained cheeks blushing even redder.

"Hello," he replied, smiling at her. "I'm sorry we couldn't meet under happier circumstances," he told her softly, offering her his handkerchief, which she took almost shyly. "I need you to take care of two of my Pokémon meanwhile…"

"We are _trading?_" she asked. It didn't look like she liked the idea.

"I'll give them back to you when they're fine, don't worry." Giovanni then held out two of his own Pokéballs, those of his Nidorina and his Nidorino. She took them and he rose to his feet. "I'll be back in a minute; don't move from here." She frowned at his commanding tone, but he trusted her not to do something stupid. Or steal his Pokémon; which were two excellent battlers, and a pair he had _great plans_ for… He _truly_ didn't judge the situations the right way whenever Ariana was involved, did he?

The nurse perked up as he approached, ID at hand as the procedure demanded. "Good night, sir! Welcome to…"

He cut right in: "I just traded with the redhead over there. Her Pokémon, however, are a little bit roughed up. Would you heal them now?" He knew he had revealed entirely unnecessary information, just in case the nurse had been distracted and hadn't heard his conversation with Ariana.

It had the intended effect; the nurse _turned red,_ and she went against the code of "good and pleasant" behavior they signed to work at a Pokécenter. "That girl is _not_ a trainer from the region, _sir,_" she spat, gritting her teeth. "If you traded with her, you must accept the consequences."

"Trading is a free action, _miss,_" he threw back, "and these two Pokémon are mine now," he pushed up his hat so she could see his face clearly. She gulped. "If you aren't happy, make sure the rules are reviewed for _obvious loopholes _next time… Now, I'm sure you don't want to get into any trouble, do you?"

"No, Mr. Giovanni, sir," the nurse answered as would a grounded child. She held out her hands to receive Ariana's Pokéballs from him. "Wait a minute, please." She then left the counter to do her job, and he was left wondering whether she had feared being reprimanded by the League or by an organization far darker than that… He turned to look at Ariana at the corner, to keep his mind off that abyss.

And he didn't see her anywhere.

Cursing lowly, Giovanni turned around, searching for that signature cherry-red hair, and seeing nothing but browns and blacks; he couldn't just _go find her,_ though, effectively held back by his own concern over that pair of wounded Pokémon she had left behind—

* * *

"—what's so _funny?_" his father asked when he started laughing. Silver just shook his head. "She didn't _trick me,_ just so you know," Giovanni added, worsening his son's fit. "I'll ignore that, for now—"

* * *

"—all ready, Mr. Giovanni, sir! These two fine Pokémon are…"

"I don't have _time_ for this!" he cut in for the second time that night. The gym leader just took the Pokéballs and was _gone_ before the nurse even had time to get angry again.

He ran for the exit of the Pokécenter, and was nearly out the door when his Nidorina's cry called him back. He stopped in his tracks, not turning around. He recognized the "laughs" of his Pokémon, and _Ariana_ didn't keep quiet about the issue either, giggling. The trio paused once he looked at them over his shoulder, and the redhead just giggled _some more._ If it wasn't because he was _delighted_ she wasn't crying anymore, Giovanni would have left her without a Pokémon to call her own, his qualms against stealing be damned. "You should have seen your face!" Bitch.

"I'm glad you overcame your distressed damsel syndrome again," he replied. "Should we trade back now?"

Ariana winked at him in good humor, and his frown fell off his face just like that. "Sorry I worried you, but the floor was _uncomfortable,_" she finally apologized, recalling Nidorina and Nidorino, extending their Pokéballs back to him.

Giovanni took them, put them back where they belonged at his belt, and then he handed the redhead her own two Pokémon. "The nurse will surely hate you next time you come. Try to find your stuff before that," he advised her.

But she was too busy releasing her Pokémon just to see that they were _truly_ fine. And they _were;_ he'd have to congratulate the nurse later for her work ethic. "I think I won't be getting used to you being a Gloom anytime soon, but I'm _glad_ you're fine," Ariana addressed the grass type first. Turning to her ice type, she frowned when she saw it looking rather gloomy. "That Meowth was a Giratina spawn. We'll defeat him next time!" she assured her Weavile. It looked _grateful_ for her effort at cheering it up, yet it obviously wasn't _enough._ It had to be _quite humiliating_ to be defeated by a baby, he guessed.

"Ah… What about your stuff?" Giovanni tried again, barely remembering in time that he wasn't _supposed_ to know her name.

Ariana shrugged, hugging her Gloom as it jumped onto her lap. "I had it all with me at the gym just a while ago, but I must have either dropped my ID cards, or they were stolen… by the audience," she added, mildly incredulous. "There were a lot of people there. Do you know if that's normal?"

He hesitated to answer; she didn't _know_ who he was, either. "The gym here in Viridian has a lot of trainers. Someone could have called them up to watch your challenge for some reason."

"I wouldn't know _why,_ though; I'm not renowned or anything…" She _certainly _wasn't. "Or, wait, do I look too much like a newbie?" she asked, the fire of her temper kindling to a warm flame to mask her honest concern.

"No, not at all," he assured her, lying through his teeth. He gestured for her to move over on her seat, and then he sat down himself, sighing. "Are you _not worried_ about your stuff? You could need it, you know?" he insisted.

"I wouldn't know how to recover it, even if it was just lost and someone found it; it depends on _them_ wanting to return it." Good point.

And Giovanni _didn't_ want to suspect it was stolen, but he would have to give it a try anyways. He was going to hunt Petrel down at the darkest alleys of the city, and have him help if he didn't have Ariana's stuff himself. "I think I know where to look," he whispered. "If you'd give me your address, I'll send back your belongings, if I find them." She looked at him in distrust.

"No way!" She stood up, and he feared he had screwed up again when she actually glanced down at him and said: "Lead the way. I'm going with you."

* * *

**Author's notes: **Good Lord! Who would have thought that coming back home after a month out would affect me _so much?_ My creativity and desire to write flew out the window as soon as I arrived to Mexico (it's unfair). Not to mention that I felt _alien_ in my own house with my own family… It's been a couple of really hard weeks in that regard (I had planned to publish chapter three before _that,_ though; it didn't happen, as I was finishing up at Peru, and I'm _really_ sorry and I feel _really_ bad)

**Story comments:** In this chapter, I introduced _more_ characters! (I personally liked the nurse and our local repeat sex offender a lot) And I hope I get to develop both Petrel and Archer more next time; Petrel has it long overdue, simply for the fact that he was supposed to appear during Giovanni's (and Ariana's) hunt through the darkest alleys _halfway through this chapter,_ but the lovebirds decided to extend their drama all over the place! (proof? Ariana cried for _two-thirds_ of the chapter. I hope Giovanni buys her a Gatorade or the Pokéworld equivalent; she must be _dehydrated_ solely from that) In other news: Silver remains cute!

**Reader requests:** Want me to continue? Put this on Alerts! Want me to continue, but _faster?_ Review: just a simple "I'm reading this fic" is enough! Like this fic a lot? Tell your friends to read it, please!


	4. Chapter 4

**Two Garnets and some Cherries with Cream**

Chapter 4 of ?

_By Kayi S. Rowling_

* * *

"I wouldn't know how to recover it, even if it was just lost and someone found it; it depends on _them_ wanting to return it." Good point.

And Giovanni _didn't_ want to suspect it was stolen, but he would have to give it a try anyways. He was going to hunt Petrel down at the darkest alleys of the city, and have him help if he didn't have Ariana's stuff himself. "I think I know where to look," he whispered. "If you'd give me your address, I'll send back your belongings, if I find them." She looked at him in distrust.

"No way!" She stood up, and he feared he had screwed up again when she actually glanced down at him and said: "Lead the way. I'm going with you—"

* * *

—Silver continued to feel _tired._

He had also continued to _laugh_ after his father described what was basically his mother pulling a prank on him. Giovanni might have had his pride hurt by that incident, and he might not be admitting anytime soon that his beloved had tricked him for her own amusement—and, arguably, for cheering herself up too—, but it was _obvious_ she had. And, of course, the older man didn't take his son's fit of laughter well either, so he had stopped narrating after it seemed Silver wouldn't quit doing it anytime soon. Whether or not that silence qualified as a sulk, nobody knew.

When the redhead did stop, though, he wasn't just _tired_ but _exhausted._ Thankfully, the knots of worrying thoughts his mind had entangled itself into earlier had loosened. Yawning and enjoying his renewed relaxed state, Silver turned to look at the nearby digital alarm clock. It read 3 AM… probably. He wasn't sure, but he had the suspicion his eyes were lying to him. After all, how could it be that a story that had dragged on like that was only _one_ hour long? It couldn't be! And how much more was his father going to tell him, anyways? He had already finished the bit about how he had met his mother, so the premise was pretty much done with since the very beginning. Was he going to tell him the whole love story before dawn broke, perhaps? And _when_ did a love story end, if at all?

"Aren't you _tired?_" Silver asked out of the blue.

Giovanni chuckled, shaking his head as he replied: "Not since you arrived; I don't feel as tired anymore. Worrying for your safety is definitely not something I want keeping me up at night, but it did, all that time you were away…"

"You haven't slept either?" The redhead himself had had no _time_ for that. All that fighting implied in saving the world and ensuring the universe's continuity had kept him rather busy from the first moment until the very end. He hoped those he cared about—Blue and, rather grudgingly, Gold—were already resting at their homes… because he _wasn't._

"I don't think _anybody_ has slept well in a while," his father told him softly. "Your mother was no exception… But I called her when you first got here to let her know you were back. I hope she'll be less stressed now," said the man dying of an incurable disease of a woman who, at worse, had bags under her eyes. Love could indeed drive someone mad enough to do such weird situations a reality.

Sighing, Silver let himself fall back upon the bed. "We should rest for a little while, shouldn't we?" he suggested, truly delighted at the thought of getting some decent sleep at long last…

Giovanni chuckled again, though, as if the sole idea was _funny._ "It's not that much until I reach the end of what I want to tell you," he promised. His facial expression, however, betrayed the fact that he was actually lying. "It would be a shame if we forgot where we were at, in case we continued tomorrow or any other day."

Barely keeping from groaning, the redhead sat down again. "Then I need some fresh air," he simply stated, nearly bored.

"Let's go outside," Giovanni agreed, rising to his feet. Silver followed suit.

The redhead let his father guide the way out, all the while looking around himself at the horrible hideout he had chosen. It had its advantages, and he knew them well; it was hard to find and even _harder_ to reach, and only three people—or maybe four, counting his mother—knew the place, so Giovanni was safe and he could recover in peace. However, it didn't have enough space to be truly _comfortable;_ it was probably not helping the older man much anyways. It made him keep thinking rather guiltily that he could have found a better hideout…

Once outside, Silver sighed, leaning against the rough "wall" by the entrance. "How did your little adventure in Viridian at night go?" he asked Giovanni, still mildly amused by the memory of what had preceded that.

His father sat down upon a rock nearby. "As well as you can imagine, I bet," he answered, one dark eyebrow up. "Petrel _did_ have your mother's things. I had honestly never been as ashamed of my people as I was back then—"

* * *

—upon leaving the Pokécenter and walking a couple of blocks, Giovanni took off his hat and scarf, handing them to Ariana, who looked up at him in puzzlement. "I don't want you to have trouble after this," he explained. "It's better if they don't see your face clearly." Nothing could be done about that long cherry-red hair, though. Unless he also gave her his coat, which might actually be the best choice; she wasn't even wearing a jacket or a sweater, unlike him, and she could be freezing…

"Don't do that," she muttered, blushing slightly as he took off his coat and handed it to her. "It's not cold or anything. Sinnoh is far worse than this."

He shrugged. "You could still use it to hide your hair."

Sighing in defeat, she put it on and readjusted the scarf as well, frowning all the while. "We're not going to meet anyone on the legal side of the city, are we?" she asked. She didn't sound _scared,_ surprisingly enough.

"It's not that bad," he told her as they resumed walking, Ariana keeping one step behind him. "If your things aren't there, we leave immediately; is that fine with you?" He had to look back over his shoulder, because she only nodded silently and kept her eyes glued to the pavement beneath her feet as they went into the first dark alley.

As always, Giovanni was simply _amazed_ by the growth his gym had brought to the city; he wasn't proud of it most of the time, though, feeling guilty and ashamed instead. It wasn't all for the _good_ of everyone, after all, but at least Viridian City wasn't just a random town off the path like Pallet Town anymore. The gym itself, the train station, the Pokémart, the Pokécenter, the many other activities and jobs related to honest Pokémon training, the alleys he was currently walking through with Ariana, the various sellers of obviously fake Pokémon vitamins, the group of thugs beating someone in the shadows, and the woman that walked past them stinking to cheap perfume… All of it was a sign of a successful city in Kanto, and all of it was _his fault._

Warily, he reached out for Ariana's hand, pulling her along a little bit faster. "Afraid of the dark?" she whispered in amusement.

"Afraid you get a good look at it," Giovanni muttered intelligibly. He didn't answer when she asked next what he had just said; chances were she had heard it clearly, and he didn't want to repeat it to her if she was in the mood of mocking him like before.

Reaching the end of the alley and a nicely illuminated street again, they hurried to the next. Perhaps fortunately, this was the one Petrel had chosen to put up his "shop" at. Unfortunately in all certainty, though, the freaky thief practically materialized out of nowhere and gave them a good scare in the process—

* * *

"—he liked to do that," Giovanni commented almost fondly.

"He still does!" Silver groaned. "Whenever it's not one of his disguises, he will suddenly be on your shoulder in a previously empty hallway." And that was just _one_ example. He especially liked to sneak in whenever he was talking with Ariana, though, and more than once _that_ had resulted in her slapping him _so hard_ it was a wonder his head stayed on every time. Silver _really_ wondered how those two could actually be the ones with the friendliest relationship among the former executives; it truly made no sense…

"You should be a little bit more patient with him. He's a nice guy, even if it takes a while to get used to his antics," his father advised. The redhead only crossed his arms, unwilling to believe. "Well… After your mother shrieked in a way that echoed through the alley in a really nasty way—"

* * *

"—black suits you," Petrel addressed Ariana as if he hadn't seen Giovanni, who turned around to fully face the thief that had snuck in on them from behind. "I could get you something to replace all that green you were wearing at the gym. After that Weavile came around, you're not tricking us again into believing you're a tame plant type trainer. And—"

Giovanni cleared his throat to interrupt him. "May we see what you have for sale?" he asked in a tone that made it clear he didn't want to be acknowledged as the gym leader.

Smirking, Petrel nodded. "Sure thing, sir," he said, reaching back with his foot and pulling forward the first box. "Are you looking for some chloroform to use on this lovely young lady?" Ariana looked at him and then at the thief in shock and distrust, eliciting a chuckle from the other man: "Just joking, miss." He _better_ had to be just joking. "But after your horrible loss at the gym, I could offer you some help. I have explosives, if you ever want to bring down the building in revenge. It's a rather _ugly_ building too, so I'd recommend it anyways, and…" he continued to make chat with the _very_ silent redhead.

If there was something that Petrel was lacking, it wasn't credible acting skills, but the almost physical inability to _shut up_ once he opened his mouth. Which generally ended up ruining his acting, too, as if it wasn't enough already… "Look for your things," Giovanni told Ariana silently. The look she threw him then was rather awkward, but also grateful that she didn't have to be on the receiving end of Petrel's talk anymore as she knelt to browse through the stuff in the box.

The verbal attack was redirected at him next, though, as if he was a damned lightning rod. "Sir, you could use a jacket or something," Petrel unhelpfully pointed out, "or Sird will have your head on a platter tomorrow morning," he mouthed.

"Mind your own business!" he hissed back.

However, he was _right;_ he was likely to catch a cold as Sird had said, _at best,_ considering the training he had done recently—two weeks ago, actually, but the effects were long-lasting—had left him as weak as a newborn Caterpie. He had disregarded her ban on his mysterious Viridian Forest powers, and he had gone ahead and both started—accidentally—and ended a Kangaskhan stampede without the intervention of his own Pokémon. _Then _he had proceeded to train normally until exhausted, which went as good as expected when he also _fainted._ Being an actually good parental substitute, Sird had dragged him over to the hospital next thing, and she had been keeping close watch on him since. And _everyone_ and their grandma knew about it at the gym. Just peachy for a twenty-something year old…

"If she turns off that boiler again, I'll kick you," Petrel muttered in response. "If she also turns on the air conditioning, I'll bury you alive." He glared for good measure. It helped that he was older and more menacing than his boss.

"You live with your _parents;_ you could shower at home," Giovanni quickly countered in a low whisper.

Petrel shrugged. "I'm still kicking you." He, of course, wouldn't do it. Repeating a threat generally meant he wouldn't carry it out. "And why give your coat and your scarf and _your hat_ over to—?"

"I found my ID cards," Ariana said, sounding confused. She truly hadn't expected to find a single item of her "lost" stuff, had she?

Giovanni looked at Petrel again. "You're _dead._"

"I didn't know you liked her," the older of the two replied flatly. He got punched for all his trouble.

"You…" Ariana began, trailing off as she rose to her feet, "didn't need to do that," she finally added, worried at how Petrel hit one of the alley's brick walls and dropped to the ground.

Giovanni knew it was all a very dramatic act. "He's a shameless opportunist," he told her with a sigh. "We should go now. Are you sure you have everything back?"

The redhead checked over her stuff again. "Yes, all of my missing ID cards are here," she answered simply.

Nodding toward the street they had entered the alley through, Giovanni led the way out as Ariana put her things back into her bag—

* * *

"—that was it?" Silver asked, disappointed.

"Yes," his father replied. "Petrel would later confess to stealing your mother's cards right out of her bag while Archer was still pushing her buttons to see if he could make her cry some more. As I told her back then, he was just a shameless opportunist." It was a surprising thing that he had _known_ that without the confession, though, which meant he actually paid very close attention to his subordinates back then, enough to figure out their personal quirks and such. Sird, however, had just slipped _right through; _that much was obvious.

"And what did you two do next?"

"Nothing much, really," Giovanni sighed. "Your mother proceeded to show me what she _actually_ thought of me, though—"

* * *

—they walked in silence under the streetlamps, occasionally passing other people that didn't pay attention to them, too "polite" to mind a young man biting down the bitter cold that had fallen upon the city and the redheaded girl following him in an overly large coat she didn't seem to be comfortable with. And, torn between Sird's threat and real politeness, Giovanni couldn't find the words to ask Ariana to return his things. He was also concerned about what would happen after they split up later that night; he would probably never see her again now that she had lost at his gym, as she might proceed to Pewter City or return from where she came.

He _definitely_ had to make the most of the moment, if that was the case. "Would you like to dine with me, Ariana? We—"

"Weavile!" And then, just as he was turning to look at her, Giovanni had the Pokémon's outstretched claw at his throat. The redhead herself was glaring daggers through his head. "How do you know my name? I _never_ gave you that information!" she growled in distrust—

* * *

"—that was a _serious_ slip of the tongue." What an idiot.

His father coughed uncomfortably. "I made a mistake, I know. But she didn't even trust me to begin with."

"Then how come she allowed you to take her to meet Petrel?"

"She thought _I_ had stolen her things; she was just waiting for the right moment to take them back." By force, he implied with his tone. "When she found them, however, she only grew more suspicious for some reason—"

* * *

"—what have you been doing all this time? _Following me?_ Are you a stalker?" Ariana kept growling at him. The people in the street just hurried past them, some even crossing to the other side, not meeting their eyes. It was clear nobody would be calling the authorities on this case. "Answer me!" she demanded, her Weavile pressing its sharp claw a bit more against his skin.

Giovanni almost groaned. Did she truly believe he was such a low-life, with no better things to do but follow her around the city since they left the train station? He had certainly been watching out for her, but _at his gym._ And that didn't count, obviously. "I'm not stalking you."

"Then how did you get to know my name?" She was going to keep throwing that question at him for the rest of the night, wasn't she?

He understood he wasn't going to get her to act like a reasonable adult anytime soon, so he looked down at the glaring Weavile. _She_ hesitated for a second when their eyes met, but she was back to defending her owner soon enough. "I don't like you, sir," was written all over the Pokémon's face.

"Why do you distrust me so? I didn't do anything," Giovanni said aloud addressing the Weavile. Ariana looked at him weirdly.

Weavile snorted. "I think you're after my mistress, sir." This made her the second Pokémon to point out he liked the redhead. Was he truly that _obvious?_ He couldn't help blushing very slightly at the thought.

And, since neither Ariana nor her Weavile wanted to relent—those claws at his neck were beginning to make him feel uncomfortable too—, Giovanni resorted to turn the Pokémon against her owner. It wasn't a skill he particularly liked using, because it was basically _mind control_ and it made him feel incredibly bad in more than one way, but he would have to use it anyways to get the redhead to listen—

* * *

"—mind control, huh?" What an odd concept.

"If a child of Viridian Forest uses certain abilities the wrong way, it will result in that happening," his father confessed. Silver could only shudder at the thought. "Back when I was first discovering my own abilities when I was seven or eight, I accidentally developed a couple that made it _much easier_ to control Pokémon, whether wild or not; in exchange, I lost the capability to heal them, not to mention the skill itself had adverse effects that far outdid any benefit… It's been many years since I last used it; I don't think it's worth it."

Silver proceeded to stare at the older man. "And you _still_ decided it was for the best to use it back then?"

"I was young and believed myself to be immortal, son; it's obvious that I did—"

* * *

—Giovanni met Weavile's glaring eyes again with a firm look of his own, and then he went a little bit deeper than her current thoughts, causing her to shudder as he quickly went through all her memories. He tried not to fix his attention on any, though; he wanted to have the chance to ask Ariana about it himself, and from what little he saw in passing, he could tell they had known each other for a _very_ long while. Weavile's Pokéball, surprisingly enough, had disappeared pretty soon, which meant it was something fairly recent…

And finally, that uncomfortable feeling of losing sight on one eye and the growing pain of a skull-splitting headache set in, and the Pokémon swiftly turned around to put her claws up against her mistress. "Weavile, what are you doing?" Ariana asked in fear, taking a step back. Her Pokémon followed suit with two steps forward.

"She won't hurt you," Giovanni assured her. "I want you to recall her." The redhead shakily brought her Pokéball out and did as told. The gym leader rubbed his sightless eye with a closed fist, offering the still scared Ariana a smile. "I'm not a stalker, and I don't want to hurt you," he denied all accusations once more. "And I heard your name at the gym."

"I don't remember seeing you there," she replied carefully, taking off the scarf around her neck.

Giovanni chuckled. "There were a lot of people, but you're right; I was watching you battle Sird from the office upstairs, through the security cameras."

"And there you said you weren't a stalker," she muttered.

"I'm not," he insisted. "I'm Viridian City's gym leader," he finally admitted.

Ariana froze, her garnet eyes growing wide as she just stared at him in disbelief. "You… _You_ are Giovanni?" she whispered unconsciously. "I can't believe you. Just how…?"

"You can ask _anyone_ in this city, and they will just confirm it to you." Stepping up to her, he took his hat and put it on again. "Could I have my scarf back, please?"

With surprising care and gentleness, she threw it over his head and adjusted it, perhaps a little bit too tightly. Then she glared and growled at him: "_Why_ did you not tell me that in the train? Does it _amuse you_ to lie to your challengers?" Oh, damn right it did!

But since she was tightening her hold on both ends of his scarf, Giovanni just shook his head. "Not at all, Ariana; I just didn't want to ruin the surprise for you—"

* * *

"—what a lame excuse," Silver complained.

Giovanni chuckled. "Your mother said those exact same words."

The redhead just sighed in exasperation. "I don't think that's funny," he told his father, "and, surely, neither did my mother."

"She was laughing at the issue mere minutes later, son," the older man said, shrugging. "I repeated my offer for dinner to make up for hiding the truth, and she fortunately calmed down completely by the time we got to the restaurant. She was also quite thankful for all the help I had given her so far, so she found it easy to forgive me, I guess."

"I think she actually _liked you._" There was no other explanation for her change of heart. Unless she was actually _that dumb_ and willing to stand a guy who had lied to her face like that, with little to no remorse.

His father nearly laughed out loud at that. "She confirmed that much, _much_ later." He made a rather awkward pause. "It was no longer relevant then, though; it made neither of us feel better or worse about our relationship, it was just something she wanted to say." Those words he had chosen to explain the situation carried a rather depressing meaning when stringed that way.

Curious now, Silver asked: "When was that?"

"A week or two after you were taken away," Giovanni reluctantly replied.

The redhead hoped that what his expression showed was interpreted as sympathy and not pity. He just felt _terrible,_ anyways. "Well… What happened after your little first date with my mother?"

Gratitude for the change of topic nearly shone in his father's eyes. "I invited her to join the gym to train some more, and she agreed, saying that she might actually need it. After she promised to go visit the next morning, we split up and I went back to the gym—"

* * *

—he woke up to a cascade of snow white hair falling toward his face but barely brushing his skin. "Where were you last night?" It was Sird. And she had evidently just showered; her hair had lost all the color the dye usually gave it… _again._ No color ever stuck; not even off-white ones, which were her current favorites.

Giovanni groaned and pushed her to the side, kicking away the sleeping bag and sitting down on the floor of his office. "Nowhere," he answered—

* * *

"—wait a minute: you lived in your _gym?_"

"Yes. I kind of liked living with the others; they didn't all fit in my house, after all. Also, the training area was equipped very well and had enough space to roll out everyone's sleeping bags. However, those days I had been sleeping at the office, like I'm sure you remember Proton pointing out. Either way—"

* * *

"—did you keep your coat and scarf on?" Sird pressed, reaching out with her hand to touch his forehead.

"Yes," he lied, yawning and crossing his arms.

She smirked. "I heard you coughing when I came into the office. Are you _sure_ you went along with my suggestion?" That hadn't been a "suggestion," that had been a _threat!_

"I'm _fine,_" he insisted, nearly growling.

She laughed softly, patting his head affectionally as she used to do when he was shorter than her. "No fever, indeed. And if you were sick, you wouldn't be fighting so much." He just glared silently. "I'm off now," she declared, rising to her feet and going to the locked drawer on his desk, where she kept the hair dyes a secret from the rest of the team. Sighing, she added: "If only I didn't look like a lost Eevee with this _hair…_"

He couldn't help chuckling at that; he knew she preferred being bald over being seen with white hair for more than five minutes a day, and her sole hatred for her albino hair was hilarious by itself. "Then hurry; it's nearly 6 AM, and everyone will be waking any moment now," he warned her, looking over at the clock on the wall.

In haste, she left the office, closing the door behind herself. Giovanni took that time without Sird to roll the sleeping bag up and kick it under the desk where it wouldn't be seen, as well as pick up his traveling bag from where he had sandwiched it—between the wall and a series of bookshelves, right at the corner—and running downstairs to shower and change clothes, having remembered Ariana had promised to come in the morning—

* * *

"—you had forgotten?" Silver asked in disbelief.

"I'm not a morning person," Giovanni excused himself. "Much less a Sird-in-the-morning person; her sole unexpected presence in the office at those hours…" he trailed off, shaking his head as if in defeat. "Honestly, she had the creepiest ways to wake me up at times, especially when we didn't go to sleep on good terms." The redhead vaguely remembered his father mentioning he had left Sird to go search for his mother; had she taken that the wrong way?

"So, did my mother arrive on time?"

"What do you think—?"

* * *

—it was almost _noon_ and no news of Ariana. Giovanni's mood had fallen to the ground during the morning, and it was currently on the process of being absorbed by it to plummet even lower. In an attempt to cheer up, he had gone downstairs to train—or, more accurately, let his Pokémon play around—, and he was intercepted by Archer first thing. "All hail Giovanni, the man who left his office," he greeted his boss with arms crossed and lips a thin line.

"I saw you bullying the challenger last night," the gym leader replied, pointing at the older man accusingly. "You're losing your manners, mister _lawyer._"

Archer smirked, removing his glasses to clean them with his shirt. "And the girls still flock to me, boss." The fact that he had gotten away with mentioning he was an abusive boyfriend in a personal ad—in a challenge put forth by Proton—, and that it had even resulted in _more_ women contacting him even when it was _not _a lie, was proof of it.

"Must be the title," the aforementioned repeat sex offender contributed, appearing out of nowhere and throwing an arm around Archer's shoulders, much to the bespectacled man's disgust. "Hi, boss!" he added as an afterthought. "Found the chick last night?"

Doing his best at ignoring the look he got from the oldest of them three, Giovanni nodded silently. Archer's eyebrow went up at that. "So she's the reason you have been so gloomy, huh? You were waiting for her to come and challenge you…" he nearly purred; he was having _ideas._

The gym leader shrugged to try to discourage him. "I was interested because she's from Sinnoh. I thought she'd have interesting Pokémon."

Proton snickered. "Is that what you're calling _them_ nowadays?"

Meanwhile, Archer thought back to the day before. "She did have an accent," he admitted. Then he beat the younger man off his shoulders. "I'll make sure you land in jail next time, you pervert!" he hissed lowly. Those two were always at conflict…

"Go solve your issues with fewer fists and more kisses," Petrel said as he walked past them, his six or so Koffing following suit.

He left the three in a stunned silence, only broken when one of their three female members, the eleven-year-old girl, skipped up to Proton to drag him away to fight. "Sorry, guys, the lady needs me," he excused himself with a chuckle.

"Just keep your hands to yourself," Archer warned. "Anyways, boss, since you watched the fight, I guess there's no need to report it to you?"

Giovanni shook his head. "Not at all," he began, "_but_ you better cease offering badges to challengers if they beat Sird." He was rather bothered by that; had the guy refereed every match and done that offer every time? He had no right!

Archer coughed uncomfortably, adjusting his glasses. "I didn't think the girl would win. And she didn't, so there's no harm done."

"Just don't do it," the gym leader insisted.

Then he turned on his heels and marched away to go find Sird, who was missing since the early morning. She was the only training partner he actually got along with, and he also admitted he wanted to scrub the floor with her Pokémon—which didn't deserve it—for all those tears Ariana had shed the night before.

And he happened to spot both women from afar at the entrance of the gym. "Hello, Skitty," Sird greeted the redhead, ready to kick her out.

Ariana looked over the other's shoulder and spotted him as he approached. She waved at him cheerfully. "Good morning, Giovanni! I came to train as promised!"

* * *

**Author's notes: **Damn, I swear I have been working on this chapter since the day I published the third, but the inspiration just didn't come… I'm sorry again, everyone. However, please notice that, according to the _Fire Red Leaf Green_ chapter of the manga, today is Giovanni's birthday. Anyways, I guess it couldn't have been more proper, huh? (Either way, I'm sorry) In other news: this story has a page at TV Tropes; you can find it by searching my Troper profile (same name) or by searching the title of the fic directly.

**Story comments:** This chapter is rather messy, I think…; there were too many characters wanting to get the spotlight. So many, in fact, that Orm, who was coming in to cheer Sird's day up, _didn't appear this time either_ (I wonder if he'll ever). At least Proton has a friend (that 11-year-old), Petrel was plagued by Koffing, and Archer was a bastard _and_ knew it. I feel mildly happy with those results. On the other hand, poor Silver, he appears less and less each time…

**Reader requests:** As I'm making a custom of saying, Alerts to motivate me to write more and Reviews only if you want. Also, I would thank you a lot if you told your friends about this story if you liked it.


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